Today marks the beginning of the 2012 Olympics in London. To celebrate this event, we are officially starting sign-ups for the third annual Comic Olympics. The Comic Olympics are an annual competition in which the artists of Pokéfiction make sprites comics which are judged against each other. Only sprite comics are allowed. Other types of comics, such as hand-drawn comics, will not be accepted as they are too difficult for us to judge against sprite comics. Since sprite comics are by far the most popular form of comic on the forum, this is the form that is used for the Olympics. If you want to learn more about how to make sprite comics, you can read the comic guide in the new Pokéfiction Manual, which was released just today. This year, the third annual Comic Olympics will have a very special theme which will be explained shortly. To sign up, all you have to do is post in this thread and you will be added to the list.

This year's Comic Olympics have a very unique theme. Throughout the competition, the participants will be making their own mini-series. In the past, each round of the Comic Olympics has been separate from both the previous round and the next round. The rounds used to be completely distinct. This year, this is not the case. Each of your entries will be just one part of a continuous story that will span the whole competition. For this reason, we suggest that you think carefully before you make your first issue. Once you have submitted your first issue, you will not be allowed to scrap your story and start from scratch. Each entry will be a continuation of your last entry. The style of your comic is up to you. It could be plot driven, emotional or humorous, just make it stand out! Of course, only the two finalists will have the chance to complete their stories in the competition. However, if you are eliminated you are welcome to finish your series outside the competition. You are even welcome to post the remaining issues in the Comic Olympics thread if you so wish.

When the Comic Olympics begin, we will release a standardised template for you to use. However, this is not compulsory. Having a template you made yourself [6-12 panels] will get you extra consideration and it might just mean the difference between winning and losing. With that said, this is just for brownie points and having an impressive story is much more important than making a custom template. Custom sprites are allowed, as are sprites from the Pokémon franchise. However, you are NOT allowed to use custom sprites which you have already used in your own comic. If you want to use one of these sprites, then you will have to make some sort of change to it first. This competition is about making a series that is separate to your normal comic so you cannot use the template, characters or canon of your comic. Just to avoid confusion, you do not need your own comic to enter the Comic Olympics. At the end of each round, the judges will chose one participant to be eliminated while the rest will proceed to the next round. When there is only one participant left, this participant will join Shiny and Zoroark in the list of Comic Olympic gold medalists.

The themes for the round will all be released in advance to help you plan accordingly. We will base the number of rounds on the number of competitors, so it's important that we don't see too many people not submitting any entries for a round. We accept that this inconvenience will always play a part in these types of competitions to some extent, but we ask you to try your best to get the entries done. Remember, a sub-par, rushed entry is better than nothing at all. If you think that you might be unable to make an entry, do not say so in this thread. If this happens, then the other contestants will get a free pass to the next round if and only if they make an issue of their own. If they know that they are safe, then they will not invest much effort in their issue so it is best that any no-showers do not reveal that they might not be posting an issue. We want the contestants to be constantly making issues to the best of their abilities.

The amount of time you have for each round will be longer than the previous two years. This is so you can (optionally) make more issues for your series. For example, the theme for the last round is 'Make a Finale Issue'. When the penultimate round ends, the finalists might want to make a couple of issues to build up to the finale. After all, it would be difficult to make an entire series with just one issue per theme. You can post as many issues as you want in this thread to progress your plot. However, only one issue will considered when we judge the entries. For instance, if there is a round which requires contestants to introduce a new character, one of the contestants might make an issue to build the plot up to the point at which the next character is introduced, then post another issue which introduces the character. However, the only issue that will count when we judge the entries is the issue in which the characters are introduced. This will be sent to the judges by PM, while the non-compulsory issues will simply be posted in this thread by the contestants.

The themes for the rounds will be released once sign-ups have finished. We will describe all the themes in detail as soon as the competition begins so the participants can plan their plots accordingly. Obviously, we need to know how many people will be participating before we decide how many themes there will be.

Each round will have a specific theme. The entries produced by the participants must stick to the themes or they will be disqualified. When judging the entries, we will obviously pay attention to the general quality of the comic. The appearance, the plot, the humour if there is any, the originality, etc. However, for each round there will be a few criteria which we will pay particular attention to when judging the entries.

Make a pilot issueThe first round of the third annual Comic Olympics requires you to make the first issue of your new series. When you start a comic, it is important to make a good first issue, because some members will read that issue and use it to decide whether or not they will read the rest of the comic. For that reason, it is very useful for a new comic to have a good first impression. When judging the entries, we will pay particular attention to how the comic is introduced, our first impressions of the characters and what we see of the plot. We don't expect your entries for this round to be the most exciting issues in the world, but we want to see potential.

Make an issue focusing on your villainMost of the comic on the forum have some sort of villain. Some are insane and evil while others are soft-spoken and polite. Some are human while others are not. Some are purely evil while others believe that they are doing what is right. The villain can be any type of character you choose. This round requires you to make an issue which focuses on your villain. You are allowed to include the protagonist in your issue if you so wish, but the villain needs to play a pivotal role in this issue. Perhaps the issue could be from the point of view of the villain. If the issue is only loosely based on the villain, we will not be very lenient when we judge that issue.

Make an flashback issueFor this round, you have to make in issue in which we learn about one of your characters' past. You will have to use flashbacks to do this. The flashbacks have to show us a time BEFORE the first issue of the comic. It doesn't matter if you are showing us what happened a hour before the series began, or if you're showing us what happened decades before it began. Just show us something we didn't already know about one of your characters.

Make an issue with a Pokémon battleMost comics on the forum have, at some stage, featured a Pokémon battle. For this round, you have to show us a Pokémon battle. It's as simple as that. The entire battle does not need to take place within the one issue. You can begin the battle on an earlier issue if you want. Similarly, you can end your entry mid-way through the battle and finish the battle in a later issue. All that matters is that we see part of the battle in your entry. However, we will not be impressed if you use up all of your panels except for one setting up the battle and only have one panel of a Pokémon actually using an attack. When judging these issues, we will pay attention not only to the aesthetics of the battle, but also to how gripping it is. While good battle effects are desirable, it is possible to make a good issue for this round without them.

Mystery RoundThis is the mystery round. We will not post the details on this round until after the previous round ends. This is a test to show how you will react when we ask something of you that does not correspond with what you have planned. However, be assured that this round will not be incredibly specific and we expect you all to be able to mould your plots to fit around it. Some participants will know in advance what this theme is. For every round, we will choose the one participant who made the best entry of the round. We will then tell this participant what the round is. If you want to know what you have to do for this theme, you should try to get one of the Best of Round achievements as early as possible. We are trusting you not to tell anyone what the theme of this round is. Even if you are eliminated before you make it to this round, for the sake of the game please keep it to yourself.

Make an issue that ends with a cliffhangerThis round requires you to make an issue which ends with a cliffhanger, a big event or revelation that leaves the reader begging for more. It may seem like a simple round, but we are expecting the cliffhanger to be effective. When judging the entries for this round, we will pay particular attention to the effect the cliffhangers have on us. By the time you make it to this round, you will have had plenty of time to decide what this cliffhanger will be so make sure it is good. We will not be impressed with an underwhelming cliffhanger, even if the issue as a whole is good.

Make a finaleThis is the final round of the Comic Olympics and it requires you to make a climax or finale. Instead of being only one issue long like the rest of the themes, your finale can be between one and three issues long. However, they will be judged on quality, not quantity. We would prefer to see you produce one excellent issue than three mediocre issues. This is the high point of your series and we expect it to be good. Make it the best entry you have produced for this competition. Your entire series has been building up to this so don't let us down.

ShinyIs Comic Olympics in comic form? I'll join, is there a form to fill out?

There's no form to fill out. Just state in this thread that you want to join.

We will be making an issue at the end of each round to announce who is eliminated. However, we will be announcing the themes in writing. The reason for this is that we will announce all of the themes at once so you can plan accordingly.